"SidBeats 2"; More on Beats as Fonts

"SidBeats 2" [mp3 removed]

Another straight-up rhythm track done with the kit I made sampling percussion sounds from the Sidstation synth.

This is a bit more on the noize tip. The weird flanging sounds are done with Reaktor plug-ins, but all the original, underlying sounds were made with the Commodore 64 sound chip.

It was interesting to learn all the ways the various Sid users who made the original patches created kick, snare, hat, and tom sounds just using waveforms.

After working with hardware and software drum synthesizers for a while I'm coming to have a different understanding of Simon Reynold's "beats as fonts" analogy.

It is especially clear when you look at the waveforms depicted graphically in a sampler: the kick and snare, say, each have their own characteristic shape but everyone "draws" them slightly differently. They really are like alphabet letters, and when combined to form musical "sentences" they can have a completely different character/vibe/feel/aura from one kit to the next.